Firmware modification

[hadley]

This is a really good video showing what can be done:







Maybe we should send marcan a Fusion and ask him to see what he can do with it...

[Jokeyman123]

Go for it, many of us would be thrilled if he could-but there has been at least one Fusion owner who tried to dis-assemble the bootloader-like a smartphone, if the bootloader is locked at the factory-you would as has been posted by jesse and parametric-need to know the code Alesis used originally to unlock the bootloader.and as I've found, no OS update i've tried has changed the version of the boot loader-only the operating system version, the bootloader has stayed the same no matter how I updated my Fusions. Many here, including myself would love to see a possible dis-assembly of this, since it might then be possible to re-write routines to find out if sysex messages can be accessed, sent and received. And why no-one has been able to develop an editor/librarian for the fusion although a few users have tried. Alesis did not include sysex access with the Fusion. And another possibility-could open up the external SATA port-activate it, something else Alesis did not get around to doing. You will be able to connect an SATA drive to it, and it is recognized in the diagnostic routine, but only then, and cannot be read or written to. If this programmer can reverse engineer any of this-but he will have to do it without any help from Alesis as far as any of us hve been able to find out. Go for it. i do not have the programming chops-nor hardware that might be necessary to read the raw code off the ROMs. You might also try contacting Mike at Instrumental Music or MPCStuff-he helped me get a "new' working mainbord-although we could not figure out how to enter the serial number for the new mainboard in the fusion-it needs a special "key" that is long-since gone-required by techs to do this. The board works, but I can't remove the "nag" startup screen that says the serial number is invalid, not too good although after a few months it still seems to work, all functions are working correctly.

[parametric]

Wouldn't we just - Joe . . .

I watched 2.5 hrs of that vid . . . . That guy is light years ahead of anything I understand. His grasp of the principles involved is just mesmerising

as is his familiarity with the SW he uses. One cannot but admire such skill . . . .

Interesting to see "InMusic" mentioned in many of the .pdfs he looked at - ALSO the FDC regs. thing - requiring the declaration of

"certain details" not normally available elsewhere . . .

Following up THAT FDC device code might reveal some hitherto unknown stuff about the Fusion? . . . . .

Would that we could afford to engage him, but he'd need a snapshot of ALL we collectively (currently) know in order to get a handle on what

has been left UNDONE - and indeed if it is possible to redo any of it . . . .

Nice Dream though

Chris

[Jokeyman123]

I already posted to Hadley to get in touch with him-can't e too hard. If he doesn't, I will when I have a bit of free time which I don't right now. I can at least describe some of the unfinished aspects of the Fusion this programmer might be willing to look into. Although again, he might hit a brick wall if there is an encrypted bit of code he cannot decipher which locks the bootloader firmware in the Fusion. And my ability to clear the serial number problem without the special "double-secret probation" key device...

th_dean-wormer.jpg (7.31 KiB) Viewed 1294 times

[Jokeyman123]

Adding to this-looks like he is using Linux to decompile the firmware update for the Keytar, the programming commands look like Linux, I could be wrong I have no full Windows decompiler except for my hex decompiler which operates as a separate stand-alone reader, I don't think it can write to the binary. Haven't tried because i do not know how to decipher this. I can do this with the Fusion 1.24-with this hex editor. I am lost past that point, as i would need a table to see whch hex strings are doing what in the Fusion. So...I will ask this very knowledgable programmer if he would be willing to 1) decompile and look at the 1.24 firmware-see what he makes of it-I would send him the smaller file, without our programs for ROM.-the 64<MB which I don't think he'd need. And-I can do one better if he is willing and I will ask. As he is able to ascertain, at least with the keytar-all the IC mappings for the critical chips needed to re-progam the keytar, if you and jesse are Ok with this-and this prgrammer is willing to do the work-send him a copy of the service manual-I'd even send him one of my partially working mainboards to examine, if he needs it. And-it took him 5 hours!!!! just to reprogram the touch-panel functions, so it is no easy task even for this wunderkind I would bet. Get back to me, and Hadley-if you want to jump in, although seems your problem is solved. Or was it Arevyn?

My other concern-and this programmer might be able to see this right away-is this file we have actually the firmware-or is it just a bootloader for the operating system-and the parts of the operating system that we can see in the hex editor? There is a huge functional difference. If so, we are back to ground zero.

[hadley]

I've successfully followed all the steps in the video, and the firmware works. This is a big improvement to the Vortex for live use.

[Jesse]

Awesome ... sounds like a step in the right direction